European Graphical and Packaging trade unions elect leadership and adopt action plan

The UNI Europa Graphical and Packaging Conference, held in Marseille, France, on November 15 and 16, saw graphical union representatives from 17 European countries addressing critical challenges in their sector. The conference, following the Trade Union Conference Against the Rise of the Far Right and the UNI Graphical and Packaging Global Conference, brought together colleagues to outline the roadmap for the next four years.

The debates resulted in the adoption of the new UNI Europa G&P Action Plan. The plan outlines strategic focuses, including strengthening sectoral networks, countering collective bargaining threats, addressing industrial consolidation, broadening social dialogue, fostering stronger unions in Central & Eastern Europe, and promoting global integration. The conference also highlighted the commitment of the Graphical and Packaging sector in fighting the extreme right.

The conference was also an opportunity to celebrate successful organising campaigns carried out during the last mandate in Norway, Spain, Poland and Hungary, and to develop certain issues identified as future priorities, such as the impact of artificial intelligence and algorithmic management on employment in the sector or the forthcoming European regulation on packaging and packaging waste.

Finally, European colleagues bid farewell to Simon Dubbins of UNITE the Union, UK, as UNI Europa G&P President and welcomed Tony Berggren of GS Facket, Sweden, as the newly elected President.

Newly elected UNI Europa Graphical & Packaging President, Tony Berggren:

“All we do as trade unions must aim at organising, which is the key to success. We will defend the core labour rights, such as the ILO core principles, which are under attack. Moreover, we will demand the just transition that workers deserve as the price of new technologies and green transformation can’t be borne by the workers.”